President-elect Donald Trump promised to make immigration a priority on his first day in office. And he has confirmed since winning the election that he plans to declare a national emergency and mount a mass deportation campaign.
The promise will come, not through new legislation, not through structured policy change, but through Executive Order. Mr. Trump wants to send hundreds of thousands of people across the border with the stroke of the pen.
Recommended Videos
Will it be that simple?
There is little doubt that groups are ready to defend the rights of immigrants here in the United States and ready to mount a legal defense.
If you look at history, the courts have been skeptical of the Trump administration’s actions before. A case in point would be when he tried to push through a travel ban that targeted Muslim-majority countries in 2017.
It leaves little doubt there is a showdown on the horizon. There is also virtually no doubt that Republicans and Democrats alike agree that immigration reform is necessary.
What must be decided is how far it goes. Should there be large-scale bans? Should legal immigration be scaled back? Can the military be used to force large-scale roundups? Does that “smack” of a third-world tactic?
Trump’s mass deportation plan is causing anxiety on several fronts, including among immigrants and foreign college students, and it could come with a profound economic impact.
While the president-elect’s plans are coming into focus, one thing is clear, it delves into uncharted territory.
Even some of Trump’s most loyal followers admit that if taken too far, the mass deportation plan could create a crisis because there will be a lack of workers available to fill jobs and perform tasks that most American workers don’t want at a pay scale they refuse to accept.
There are also workers on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley and a high-tech workforce fed from abroad who are given visas. A separate fight -- unfortunately wrought with misinformation -- looms about filling their jobs if they are forced out of the country because a skilled American labor force to fill those jobs is just not available.
Many immigrants seeking asylum in the United States contribute to economic growth and help alleviate labor shortages, which America may be forced to deal with if mass deportations become a reality.
More than 400,000 undocumented students are enrolled in U.S. higher education, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal. Foreign students are worried about their visas and concerned about whether they’ll be able to continue their education.
Universities have been emailing international students and staff advising them to return to campus before Trump takes office. The same goes for some foreign faculty.
Other issues abound, such as capacity and logistical issues about where to detain the immigrants the administration wants to round up.
And if you try to repatriate them, could foreign countries resist, especially if some of the immigrants he wants to “send home” have been convicted of violent crimes? That would result in a domino effect and have an impact on U.S. relations with Latin America.
This nation must step back and ask whether the promises Trump made while campaigning, which his supporters expect to be fulfilled after the inauguration on Jan. 20, have any real chance of succeeding. Will they really be implemented and at what cost?
Failure to step back and ask those questions may be reckless, according to many politicians, economic analysts, global analysts and others whose families have established roots in this country from places elsewhere around the world.
Attorney Juan Carlos Gomez, the director of the Carlos A. Costa Immigration & Human Rights Clinic, has spent the better part of his life defending the rights of individuals in complex immigration matters before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, as well as the United States Departments of Justice and Homeland Security.
He will join me this week on “Politics & Power“ (formerly ”Path to the Polls") to discuss the anxiety created by Trump’s mass deportation plans and the uncharted territory they’re wading into.
Watch at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. Tuesday on News4JAX+ or watch any time on demand starting Wednesday on News4JAX+, News4JAX.com or YouTube.